An anti-union group hoping to build opposition to a law designed to make it easier to organize is using some pretty tough ads (look here and here) featuring one of the country's most famous TV crime families to attack Democratic Senate candidates.

The New York Times reports that the group is active in at least eight states, including Oregon. I haven't seen the ad - featuring one of the stars of "Sopranos" - pop up here, but stay tuned. It sounds like there's a lot of big money backing this campaign.

Oregon House Speaker Jeff Merkley, the Democratic candidate for Senate, is a natural target for this campaign because he played a role in passing a "card check" law in the 2007 legislative session that made it easier for public workers to unionize.

UPDATE: Actually, a separate but related anti-union group - the Employee Freedom Action Committee - is already running this TV commercial in Oregon hitting at Merkley.